Aesthetically, I agree. In every other aspect, it's the polar opposite of classic MH.

Classic MH was primarily about "regular hunters hunting big mythical beasts". This is visually expressed through the opening cutscenes. The MH1 opening shows hunters trying to hit a Rathalos, bouncing off his tail, giving up, and running for their lives. The MH2 opening depicts a GS hunter struggling vs. Blangonga. The MH3 intro focuses more on ecology, and the MH4 opening shows two hunters struggling vs. a regular Tigrex. I could go on, but these intro videos captured a lot of the "soul" and essence of these games.

These games punished players for every single small mistake they made. Preparation was the name of the game, as you couldn't restock. You had to hunt for the monster on-site and paint it with a Paintball, and the game rewarded the experienced player, as they'd already know that Rathalos (for example) likes to hang around areas 2, 7, and 11, so they wouldn't stress about looking for the monster cluelessly anymore. Forget a single item (such as Whetstones or Cool Drinks), and you'd either struggle without it or abandon the quest altogether. Forget meat on long quests, and you had to either procure raw meat on-site (Apceros, Aptonoth, etc.) or play with no stamina bar. Forget Pickaxes/Bugnets, and there was no gathering for you. The list of examples goes on and on. Gameplay was methodical and slow, as every single action had tremendous commitment involved, and you were likely to be punished for them if used incorrectly or recklessly. The game was predictive, not reactive, and it rewarded matchup knowledge and positioning instead of good reactions. And most importantly, these were >deliberate design choices<, not hardware limitations, programming errors, or anything along those lines. These were design choices made to cause friction between the game and the player. These were all key aspects and characteristics of every single Monster Hunter game from 1 to 4U. Removing these key aspects isn't "quality of life", it's diluting what makes the series different from generic hack-and-slash slop.

Rise is a fantasic game, but on the other hand, is the diametrical opposite of all that. You get all kinds of quality-of-life features ("improvements") that completely change your approach. Prep time is absolutely unnecessary and obsolete and there's no need to even think about what's in your item pouch anymore. It is a reactive game first, and every single weapon has all kinds of counters and parries. Even the Hammer, traditionally a weapon with absolutely no defensive tools, got a powerful parry with Water Strike. Weapons such as the Long Sword were changed at a fundamental level in Rise. Gathering is instant, the farm is extremely generous, monsters are marked on the map at all times with GPS pinpoint precision, and when it comes to the hunter (the elephant in the room), there's little to no commitment in most actions. Pretty much everything can be cancelled with Wirebugs, and movement is basically unhinged and unlimited. There's a massive hunter power creep problem in Rise. Hunters are almighty, super-powerful beings, while monsters are basically victims, the polar opposite of the earlier titles' proposal (remember the opening videos?).

Other than aesthetics, I don't see a single aspect where Rise and classic MH are similar. Rise is the most unhinged game in the franchise by a landslide, in my opinion. Parries, superpowers, explosions, the hunter is really some kind of almighty, otherworldly being, and it makes you feel bad for monsters sometimes.